1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shoulder belt for suspending a camera, a bag, etc. More particularly, the present invention relates to a shoulder belt having an accessory member, such as a pad, a writing object, etc., rigidly secured to the belt body as an integral part thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To suspend a camera, a bag or the like from the shoulder, a shoulder belt is used. When the user is walking, the suspended camera, bag or the like swings, so that the shoulder belt is likely to come off the shoulder. Therefore, a pad serving as a slip-proof member is attached to the shoulder belt. One type of conventional shoulder belt has a pad as a member separate from the belt body, while another type has a pad directly secured to the belt body as an integral part thereof.
In the first type of shoulder belt, the belt body and the pad are likely to move relative to each other, so that the pad is not stable on the shoulder. In the second type, since the pad is secured to the belt body at a fixed position, the pad is stable on the shoulder, so that there is no likelihood of the pad being displaced. Accordingly, the shoulder belt that has the pad secured to the belt body as an integral part thereof is superior from the functional point of view. Incidentally, this type of shoulder belt involves an increase in the man-hour for the process of forming the pad as an integral part of the belt body, and hence a considerably high production cost. For this reason, there has heretofore been a demand for a method of producing a shoulder belt at reduced cost, that is, a technique of forming a pad as an integral part of the belt body with high productivity.
In particular, a conventional method of uniting a pad with the belt body by using a sewing machine cannot provide an adequate peel strength for the pad attached to the belt body because the fastening depends only on the strength of thread. Particularly, when bent, the pad becomes arcuate, pulling a part of the sewing thread, so that this part of the thread may become slack or disconnected. If the thread is broken, a part of the pad peels off, and the peeling spreads chain-reactionally, resulting in the whole pad peeling off the belt body completely. In terms of appearance, the obverse and reverse sides of the pad are different in the seam pattern and therefore distinguishable from each other, which is disadvantageous from the decorative point of view.
In the meantime, many shoulder belts of the type described above are printed with the trade names and manufacturers' names of articles suspended by the belts, e.g., bags, cameras, etc. Shoulder belts printed with such names have a great decorative effect. In particular, shoulder belts printed with famous brands are popular with young people.
Hitherto, silk screen printing has generally been employed to print shoulder belts with letters, for example, trade names, or other patterns. This method enables letters and patterns to be printed on shoulder belts with relative ease. However, the letters or patterns printed by this method come off partially or entirely during the use of the shoulder belts for a long time.